STATEMENT: Neera Tanden on President Obama’s Economic Speech

Washington, D.C. — Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden released the following reaction to President Barack Obama’s remarks in at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, earlier today:

President Obama’s speech today marked the beginning of a new campaign to shake Washington out of its bizarre obsession with the wrong problems. While conservatives in Congress are still fighting the battles of 2010, President Obama is talking directly to the American people about the core challenge facing our country today, namely restoring the strength and confidence of the greatest engine of economic growth the world has ever seen—the American middle class.

The facts are clear: 30 years of conservative economic policies that seek to protect the interests of a wealthy few while slashing investments that benefit the vast majority of Americans has produced exactly what you’d expect—massive inequality when the rich get richer and the rest are left with stagnant wages and declining living standards. As we head toward the major decisions in the fall, I commend President Obama for focusing on the right challenges. By pursuing economic policies that will create jobs in the near term and investing in our country’s future, the president will put our nation on a path toward more sustainable and broadly shared prosperity.

The Center for American Progress has been at the forefront of the drive for a middle-out economic approach. Click here to review our collection of reports, editorials, columns and videos.